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Interview with Anna Kournikova (11 October 2000)
| I
enjoyed the match. First of all, we know each other very well. We’ve
practiced a lot together and I’ve known her since seven, and from the
same clubs, so I really knew what was going to happen and how she plays
and everything. So I was just going out there with my own game plan and
I tried to do it and I was really happy because I did a lot of the
things I wanted to do before the match, so I think that it was a good
first match for me. |
| I
was placing the serve really well today. I think that right now after
this match I am pretty happy. Like I said, I did a lot of the things I
wanted to do and I was very confident in the match, I was not nervous at
all. I had a good two matches in Luxembourg, three matches and then a
tough match at Filderstadt, so I have had all tough matches, and it is
good that it gives me more experience. Tough matches are always good
when you win them. Other than that, I feel fine. It’s getting better. |
| I
just was trying to play aggressively and come to the net a lot and not
make so many mistakes, of course. And serve well and I think that I did
all those things quite well. It’s always tough when you have only a
few girls from one country. When they play against each other it’s
like „the only two Russians are playing against each other“. The
Americans are more used to it because there’s more of them so it’s
not such a big deal. But I have played a lot of Russian girls,
especially in this past month. I played Petrova in Luxembourg and
Krasnoroutskaya in Vienna, so I am kind of used to that already, and
Panova now. And then we have to play the doubles tonight against two
Russian girls, so I am kind of used to that and plus I know them very
well. We all grew up together so I know their games really well. |
| I
think that you can only worry about yourself, and you have to do the
best that you can do. You can’t think about somebody else. I think
that I have my own motivation, not just because, oh my God, somebody
else is doing well. |
| (When
asked why so many Russian players are coming out strong) We will be
saying that they are coming up strong when they will be in the top 20
for five years, then you can tell that they have good results. But by
just one match you can’t really judge anybody. It’s about time –
they’re all 18, 19 now, so it’s time to play well. It’s the age
you start to play well and get older and more mature and you understand
more in the game. We always had very tough competition in Russia, in
Moscow especially, and all the girls, Meskina, Dementieva, Panova are
from the same club I am, except Krasnoroutskaya, so we always had tough
competition, we always played against each other and it was very
competitive. I think that it’s just like the French tennis. There’s
a lot of French girls and they have a great base. At the French Open, at
Roland Garros stadium, they practice and play against each other, and
that pushes you of course. |
| (When
asked about Dementieva) You never know, you just have to wait and see,
just like everybody. You can’t judge somebody by just one match or one
month. It takes at least a year to see really how the person is doing.
It’s just like some other players we have on the tour who made the
semifinals of Wimbledon and then obviously there has been nothing else.
So you can’t jump to any conclusions unless there is some stability. |
| Right
now I am really happy with my coaching situation the way it is. I have a
sparring partner and my parents are helping me, and I like it the way it
is right now. |
| I
was always playing people five years older than me, and if you look at
the rankings, I was number 1 in 1980, 79, 78, 77, 76, all those years. |
| I
think that this season was the most consistent season for me. I thank
God I didn’t have a three month break for injuries like I did in in
97-98, so that was good. Except for my ankle, that was my big injury,
but thank God that was short and other than that, I think it was very,
very consistent. I had a lot of good tournaments and a lot of good
matches, and there have been some times I played really well, like San
Diego, Stanford, Sydney and Scottsdale. There have been also times where
I didn’t play well but I won, and sometimes it’s important when you
don’t play your best to just get through it. So I think that this year
was the most consistent for me |
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